In a news conference a half-hour after UCLA’s 8-4 victory over Pacific on Friday afternoon to open the NCAA women’s water polo championships, a reporter brought up the team’s upcoming semifinal. The contest was to come the following day against USC, marking the crosstown rivals’ first postseason meeting since 2014.

“When you see a USC and UCLA, it could be checkers, it could be snail racing, it could be whatever,” the reporter began, “somebody is thinking intensely about one side or the other winning.”

Not the Bruins.

“It’s silly to think there’s no acknowledgment that it’s USC versus UCLA,” said Devin Grab, a senior attacker, “but at the same time, there’s not much we can do about that fact, what our opponent is going to do. We just have to focus on ourselves, focus on the details.”

The matchup might be formidable enough. USC, which is hosting the tournament this weekend at its Uytengsu Aquatics Center, is aiming for its second NCAA title in three years and is the top seed. The Trojans had one of their best regular seasons in program history, going 23-1 and winning the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship.

They scored the most goals in the MPSF (12.6 per game) and allowed the fewest (4.8). They swept the conference’s major awards, including player of the year (junior goalie Amanda Longan), newcomer of the year (freshman driver Paige Hauschild) and coach of the year (Jovan Vavic).

“They’re a team, if you let your guard down for one second, you’re going to pay for it,” UCLA coach Adam Wright said.

Although the rivals compete for national championships across a variety of varsity sports, few are quite like women’s water polo, which sees only a handful of contenders. Since it became an NCAA-sponsored sport in 2001, three programs have won an NCAA title in women’s water polo: Stanford, as well as UCLA and USC.

The rivalry leans more congenial as a result, carrying some underlying respect.

A majority of the players on both rosters grew up in Southern California as well, and faced each other on the club or high school circuit.

“In the pool, obviously we’re on different teams,” said USC sophomore two-meter Kaylee Brownsberger, a Hermosa Beach native, “but then out of the pool, you see your friend you grew up playing with, you say hi and everything.”

The semifinal game will be the teams’ eighth meeting in the NCAA championships and perhaps holds more pressure for UCLA. The fourth-seeded Bruins have won seven NCAA titles, more than both the Cardinal and the Trojans, but last took the top hardware in 2009, a near-decade drought that has since seen their crosstown counterpart win three.

“The past is the past and the future is the future,” Wright said. “The only thing we know right now is we got a shot at No. 1 USC, and that’s a fact. We can make a monster of it, sure. We haven’t won since 2009. But that has no relevance to (Saturday).”

What might have the most relevance is whether Maddie Musselman, the Bruins’ sophomore attacker and leading scorer, can return against the Trojans. She sat out the quarterfinal win over Pacific due to an unspecified medical condition, according to a team spokesman. Wright declined to provide further information or clarify her status.

Musselman averages almost two goals per game. Without her, the Bruins will be “very different,” said Vavic, the Trojans’ coach.

“Take Shaquille O’Neal out of the Lakers, take Kobe out, it’s a different team,” Vavic said, “but that doesn’t mean they’re not going to be tough.”

Vavic was not with the Trojans on the bench during their 12-5 quarterfinal triumph over Wagner. He was forced to sit out as a result of his ejection in their last game, the MPSF tournament final against Stanford. He watched from a balcony perched outside his office and behind one goal, as associate head coach Casey Moon handled coaching duties. Vavic will return against UCLA.

Moon complimented the players for their preparedness and focus. Vavic believed they would be as well against UCLA, striving for their fourth win this season against the Bruins.

“This is a tough, tough single-minded group,” Vavic said after the quarterfinals, sitting inside his office inside the balcony. “They know what they want.”

Joey Kaufman is the USC beat writer for the Southern California News Group. Since joining the Orange County Register in 2015, he has also covered Major League Baseball and UCLA athletics. His work has been recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors and Football Writers Association of America. Kaufman grew up in beautiful downtown Burbank.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.